Introduction

Neuer Wein und Zwiebelkuchen is a German cultural reader designed to help improve your reading proficiency and heighten your cultural awareness and competence. The story introduces you to everyday life in Germany by highlighting the experiences of several young university students. The main character of the story, an American exchange student named Jessica Mittelstadt, spends a year at the university in Freiburg, Germany. The story follows Jessica's adventures and exploits in Germany, as she meets new friends, experiences a new living situation, and is exposed to a different culture. By reading the story and completing the various activities you can travel virtually with Jessica as she explores the world around her.

Reading Strategies

Since this is probably your first encounter with a longer German text, you will want to take some time to think about how you will approach the reading task. Reading a text in a foreign language can be a frustrating experience if you do not develop constructive and efficient reading strategies. However, with the right approach, reading in the foreign language can be a great language learning experience, not to mention a lot of fun.

It is important to know that the text recycles common first-year vocabulary, which means that you already know a lot of the words in the story! Do not get hung up on all the words that are unfamiliar to you and do not look up every new word you come across. This would be a very time consuming process that would quickly lead to frustration and aggravation. Concentrate instead on the words you know and try to figure out the meaning of important words you do not know from the context in which they appear. Always remember that it is best to try to obtain a global understanding of the text without getting caught up on every detail.

The process of reading in a foreign language is similar to the process of putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. You would never try to put a puzzle together by picking up random pieces and trying to see where they fit. Instead you would most likely attempt to find the pieces for the border and then fill in the gaps. Similarly, when reading this German text, it is important to begin with the frame (that is, the basic story line) and then try to fill in the gaps with the most important details. The pre-reading activities found at the beginning of each chapter (Vor dem Lesen) will provide suggestions for various ways you can build that framework before you even begin reading the text.

How to Approach the Text

We recommend taking the following approach to the text:

1. Start by merely looking at the chapter as you would the picture on the cover of a jigsaw puzzle box. Glance through the chapter to see how it all fits together. Are there visuals? What do the pictures show? Do you recognize various text types in the chapter (lists, letters, diary entries, etc.) If so, can you tell who wrote them?
2. Take a minute and think about the information you just gathered. What do you think this chapter is going to be about? Where does it take place? What characters appear in this chapter?
3. Now skim the text once without really reading it. Concentrate on the nouns - these are easy to recognize in German because they are capitalized - and the verbs. Are there certain words that appear frequently? What main topics appear in the chapter? It is often helpful to make a list of the topics free time activities, food, household chores and then cluster the vocabulary that you recognized around these topics (Freizeit: Musik hören, tanzen, Kanu fahren, schwimmen).
4. Finally it is time to begin reading the text. Notice how you already have a general framework (some of the pieces of the border of your puzzle) before you even start. The object of the first reading is to try to get the gist of the story (the rest of the border of the puzzle and especially the corner pieces). Do not look up any words during the first reading. Concentrate on the words you know, not the words you do not know.
5. It is a good idea to read the comprehension questions in the Mit dem Text arbeiten section, so you can concentrate on the areas that you need to know in order to answer the questions.
6. Now read the text several more times, trying to fill in the missing gaps. You shouldn't worry if you cannot get all the puzzle pieces to fit, but try to concentrate on the important areas. For example, just as in a puzzle you might realize that all the green pieces represent a tree, so too you might find groups of words that all have to do with the same topic or content area. Try to guess the meaning of these unfamiliar words from the context.
7. If there are any remaining words that you think are important for understanding the content of the story or if you think you misplaced some pieces of the puzzle because you guessed wrong, you should now look these up. Do not, however, look up every unfamiliar word - just the ones that are important to the story line.
8. Now concentrate on answering the comprehension questions from the Mit dem Text arbeiten section. You may find that you will have to re-read certain passages in the text.
9. Finally, re-read the chapter before you start the next one. It will help get you back into reading German and will refresh your memory as to what has already happened.

We hope that you enjoy the satisfaction of reading an entire story in German! Enjoy your virtual trip to Freiburg!